


The Virtue of a Name

by lilithenaltum



Series: The Valki Fics [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor (Movies), Thor: Ragnarok - Fandom
Genre: Babies, Daddy Loki, F/M, Frigga the Second, Hilde has been pregnant forever, Loki is a Food Network snob, Loki watches Perry Mason because of course he would, Post Infinity War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2019-03-15 02:12:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13603398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilithenaltum/pseuds/lilithenaltum
Summary: "Proper names are poetry in the raw. Like all poetry they are untranslatable."





	The Virtue of a Name

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gaslightgallows (hearts_blood)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hearts_blood/gifts).



> Written for gaslightgallows because she is one of the most amazing people I've had the pleasure to meet. I hope you like it.

Winter in New York City is more brutal than any weather she’d ever experienced on Asgard, and definitely colder than the almost always summer of Sakaar. Hilde didn’t particularly care for the cold; excess heat was annoying in more ways than one and she was thankful she didn’t have to spend the better part of her pregnancy, big as she was, in sweltering temperatures. But this cold was ridiculous.

 

And her husband seemed to relish in it. Loki routinely walked about in nothing more than a light jacket or hoodie, turned the air conditioner on in the middle of November, and went to bed naked most nights, although the thermometer often read below 20 Fahrenheit. It was not something she would ever understand; even when she wasn’t carrying an extra little person inside her, she was still freezing and it was only by the grace of the numerous electric blankets and her personal space heater was she able to remain as comfortable as someone who had been pregnant for months could be. And she wasn’t even sure yet how much longer she would be pregnant. There weren’t any half Aesir, half Jotnar kids running about so she didn’t have any kind of science to go on except for the tests Agatha and Bruce had done.

 

Maybe a year, they’d said. Aesir births took ten months, give or take a week and she knew Jotnar pregnancies stretched into the two year mark, so Loki had made a guess at a year and a half. Hilde hoped to the Norns he was off on that estimate; she was right at the eleven month mark and her belly couldn’t possibly stretch any bigger. And her back…gods help her poor back. This baby was going to be a big one, she knew, and the idea of birthing Loki’s giant child was daunting. She kept those thoughts to herself though. Loki was already stressed and worried about being a father and she didn’t want to add on to it.

 

One evening, close to the solstice, she lay in bed with the television on, bundled up in blankets and thick pajamas. Most of her clothes, even the maternity ones she’d went shopping for, didn’t fit and she’d been reduced to lounging around in an oversized shirt of Loki’s and old stretchy leggings. Her tummy, round and taut, rose over the covers like a mountain and she had to prop her head up with several pillows in order to make out anything over the swell of it. Every so often, a little pair of feet would press along the inside of her stomach and make her smile; she could make out tiny toes at this point and experimented with her child’s strength of force by stacking books and remote controls on her belly to see how far the baby could kick. So far, the farthest had been five feet.

 

Her husband pattered around the kitchen, cleaning up and putting away their dinner that they’d had in bed together. “Loki?” she called, rubbing a particularly sore spot around her ribs where the baby had taken up tap dancing on. “Can you bring another bottle of water?” She thought she heard something like a yes from him, but it was hard to hear over the explosions and gunshots of the action movie she watched. He ducked into the bedroom with several bottles of water and a bag of warm kettle corn, and she wiggled her swollen feet in delight. “How’d you know I’d want some popcorn, love?” she asked, and Loki smiled softly, pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead as he climbed into bed.

 

“Because I can read your mind,” he says with a laugh. “In truth, you’d have my head if I fixed myself any popcorn and didn’t bring you some as well. What are we watching?” Hilde shrugged, picking up the remote and pressing the info button. She’d forgotten already.

 

“Uh…Die Hard…2? I don’t know. It’s noise in the background and there’s nothing but reruns on everything else. Feel free to change it, if you want.”

 

Loki took the remote from her and began scrolling through the channels, stopping for a second on the Food Network, but scoffing when it Guy Fieri’s voice blared through the speakers. “He’s a disgrace to the culinary arts,” Loki said snootily, and Hilde just giggled, stuffing a handful of sweet kettle corn into her mouth. “Can’t be any worse than that Sandra Lee woman,” she said and Loki nodded in agreement. “True. I’ll give you that. At the very least, Fieri knows what food actually entails.” And then he shuddered, no doubt thinking of Sandra’s penchant for using canned fruit in cobblers and putting corn nuts on boxed chocolate cake. Hilde patted Loki’s shoulder affectionately. She loved her little snotty self taught chef.

 

After more scrolling, they finally settled on Perry Mason, one of Loki’s favorite shows. He usually got incredibly into the cases of each episode, guessing halfway through at who was the culprit and almost always getting it right. This episode was one neither had seen before and so she quieted down, snacking as silently as possible to catch the plot.

 

Paul and Perry were working to prove the motive behind a murder involving insurance fraud when she felt the baby kicking again. Loki, curled up on her side with his head on her shoulder, stopped still as two tiny feet poked through the shirt she wore and then disappeared again. He stared for a long moment, hoping to see it once more and Hilde obliged him, lifting her shirt and guiding his hand to where the baby was now wiggling and moving. “Not a lot of room, is there little one?” he said, his voice awed and quiet and when the baby responded, one little foot stretching across the tight skin of Hilde’s belly, Loki gasped. He pulled back and stared wide eyed, first at where his hand had been and then at Hilde, before he began to smile, his eyes lighting up brightly.

 

“You’d think you’ve never felt the baby kick before,” Hilde teased, but Loki didn’t say a word. He only leaned over and lay his cheek across her belly, closing his eyes with the smile still on his face. And the baby rewarded him, moving about and kicking softly, almost as if they knew their father was there. “How are you, my love?” he whispered, rubbing her tummy as he did so. “Are you coming soon? Papa is so excited to meet you!” Hilde slid her fingers through Loki’s hair, sucking in a breath so that the tears that prickled her eyes didn’t spill over. She seemed to want to do nothing but cry lately, and about everything. And this wasn’t helping any. There was something so incredibly sweet about how gentle Loki’s voice got when he talked about the baby, but this was on another level. When he talked to the baby, it was damn near cavity inducing.

 

He opened his eyes to meet hers and reached up, wiping a stray tear from her cheek. “I’m convinced,” he said, as he nuzzled her belly with his cheek, “that this is a girl.” Hilde laughed, sniffling as she did so. “And what convinced you of that?” Loki gave a small shrug. “Just a feeling. But I’ll make you a wager.” She rolled her eyes but laughed, and agreed. “Fine. What are the terms?” “If it’s a girl,” Loki said, “I get to name her whatever I wish. Anything.” Hilde raised a brow. “ _Anything_ is a little too broad, Lackey. You might name the poor kid after Ina Garten.” Loki grinned. “That’s actually not a bad idea,” he said, pretending to think the idea over but Hilde thumped his nose and he laughed, and lifted his head from her belly.

 

“Alright, no Inas. Maybe something a bit more traditional. However, if it’s a boy, you get to name him. Whatever you want, I will concede to.”

 

Hilde narrowed her eyes. The whole issue of names was a delicate one, and when she’d first discovered she was pregnant, something they had fought back and forth on for weeks and weeks. They’d only called a truce when Hilde had a breakdown at Baskin Robbins over the virtues of an Allyn versus an Aryn. They wouldn’t talk baby names until the baby even arrived.

 

“I have a feeling you cheated and found out what I’m having.”

 

Loki frowned. “Of course not! You wanted to be surprised and so did I and I didn’t-“

 

“You sure about that?” she prodded and Loki nodded once, firmly, so that she knew he was, in fact, not lying. “Alright. Fine…I’ll take the wager. I’m curious though,” she said, and Loki settled back beside her again, wrapping her tightly in his arms, his popcorn forgotten in favor of skimming his hands over her tummy once more.

 

“What about?”

 

“What are you going to name the baby if it’s a girl?”

 

He turned his head up to look at her and the strangest look passed across his face, but only for a second, so that she thought she had imagined it. “I’ll tell you when it gets to that point,” he said quietly, and he turned his head again to watch the television. Hilde pondered his reaction for a while longer, but decided to let it go. Sometimes there was no use in trying to figure out what went on inside his head. He’d let her know when he felt it was the right time to.

 

 

Two months passed before either of them acted on their little wager. Hilde went into labor one frosty February morning on a Friday, a week away from Valentine’s Day, and she lay exhausted but happy surrounded by dozens and dozens of red and pink roses. Thor had brought the baby a red teddy bear with a heart attached, sheepishly admitting he’d put off buying anything until the last moment, in direct contrast with Bruce who had been shopping online for the perfect gift-a custom commissioned crocheted Hulk baby onesie-for months.

 

Her friends and family crowded the large room she’d delivered her firstborn in at Stark Tower-Heimdall and Siri with balloons in the corner, some of the Valkyrior out in the hall, Pepper scrolling through an ipad and reading off congratulations on Instagram. Sif sat on the edge of the bed and waited her turn to hold the new baby, but Hilde had warned her that it might be a while before anyone got the chance to.

 

Loki sat beside her, oblivious to any of the chatter around him, his attention focused squarely on his newborn daughter. There was a cautious smile on his face, fear and love mingling in his eyes, and Hilde touched his arm to grab his attention. Tony Stark was asking him a question.

 

“You’ll have to excuse me, Stark,” Loki said apologetically and Tony waved the apology away. “No problem, no problem at all. We were all just wondering…what are we calling the newest member of the family?” And then everyone’s eyes were on Loki, who glanced at Hilde, and then back to his daughter once more. She shifted a little in her father’s arms, eyes flittering open for a second before she sighed softly and settled back to sleep.

 

“Frigga,” Loki said proudly, and he met his brother’s gaze, grinning as he did. There was an indescribable joy on Thor's face that mirrored on Loki's and Hilde felt it deep in her heart. “I named her Frigga.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact: Frigga the Second was born on a Friday, a day of the week named after her grandmother who was also born on a Friday. :)


End file.
